Three Cheers for “Balti-Mom”
I’ve been preoccupied this week with Statehouse matters so I haven’t had the chance to really chime on the situation in Baltimore. Allow me to correct that now with a shout out and “you go girl” to Toya Graham, the Baltimore mother who has been seen around the world smacking her idiot son upside the head and pulling him out of the protests.
Graham has been hailed in many corners for taking action and criticized by others. Since I am in the cheering section, allow me to address the criticism. Some critics have said that if Graham had been a better parent, her son would not have been out there. Not really, I have four brothers and come from a responsible, middle class two-parent household, but I still had one brother who had a penchant for finding trouble and my parents usually had to go out and find him.
Secondly, Graham has been criticized for smacking her son, with child psychologists saying she should not have used violence to get her point across and she was sending the wrong message. I am sure they will remember that if those same experts ever find their child in the middle of a protest, dressed in a hoodie to conceal his identity as he goes down to start destroying other people’s personal property and put his own life and safety at risk.
Thirdly, Graham has been attacked for saying the reason she was upset and lashed out was that she did not want her son to be another Freddie Gray. Well, seeing how several police officers have been charged with murder and manslaughter in Gray’s death, excuse me for not getting upset over that point.
So let’s recap shall we. A mom who told her hard-headed son to stay away from a bad situation that could put his life in danger finds out he disobeyed so she goes and gets him, smacks him upside the head and embarrasses him on national TV. Drive 700 miles west and go back about 30 years and that would have been my mother doing the exact same thing under those circumstances.
You go girl!
